“I
Thirst ...”

Strangers and Foreigners

“Great
crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed,
the mute.” (St. Matthew
15.30)

Most
often, the crowds that came to Jesus did not come for salvation;
nor for enlightenment, edification, or spiritual direction.

They
came to Jesus because He healed.

They
came, not always for their own healing — although many did — but
bearing to Him those they loved to be healed by Him.

Healed! Imagine the scene! The man a moment ago lame,
now walking with the vigor of a youth. The blind — literally in
the blink of an eye — see! The deformed, limbs contorted,
bodies bent and contorted ... in an instant made straight
and whole! The deaf suddenly hear ... and the very first
sound entering their lives are the words of Jesus.

And
these things occur before our very eyes!

How quickly
we forget the utter goodness and love of God!

We
are made well through our supplications — and go our way.

Ten
lepers are healed. Only one returns ... and he is a foreigner.
We recover our sight, our bodies, our lives ... and go on as though
nothing had ever been broken — and restored.

Where were the formerly blind, the erstwhile crippled, the once
dead, the maimed made whole ... when Christ hung on the Cross and
simply said, "I thirst ..."?

It
was a foreigner again, a Roman soldier, one who had sought
nothing from Christ before he nailed Him to the Cross ... who was
moved with pity and dipped a sponge into sour wine to slake His
thirst ...

We
think ourselves sons and daughters of the Living God ...

Would
that we were so much as foreigners and strangers to
Him ...

We
got what we wanted.

Did
Christ?

If
you are pondering the answering to this question — and do not realize
that the answer is you — then go to Holy Confession
and tell the priest that you do not know Christ ... and ask him
why.